Author's Note: This is essentially just something that got written up specifically for a sort of... idea dump fic, which never quite got anywhere. It's been sitting in my documents for ages by now just kind of being there and not being used for anything.
That in mind; I have no intention of going anywhere with this fic. If you're so inclined to take the idea and roll with it, go right ahead, but at this time I've got no plans to go further with this fic. It's not really a oneshot, and the ending bits are kind of condensed specifically because I was trying to keep around 5k words (I failed at that.) or so for this, but it's kind of complete in the sense that the ending is a closed thing, I suppose?
Anyway. I don't know where exactly this came from, I'm certain it was one of the conversations I had with one of my groups I speak with, but I don't recall what spawned it.
Lie and Cheat is a clever ship name, but Martial Arcs is also funny.
Those will be relevant by the way.
A soft sigh slipped from her lips as she glanced around once again at the surroundings, taking in the silence of the room peacefully.
Beacon Academy was right before her, it seemed. She was somewhat nervous, yes. She figured they all would be, at least a bit.
Well... perhaps not all, the girl amended to herself, spotting the notable exceptions to that. It wasn't hard to with their noticeably vivid hair colors, even as they dozed away into the night.
In a room full of hopefuls looking to become the next huntsmen and huntresses to rise to the top, there weren't many ways for such a peaceful silence to come about.
One way would be the cowing gaze of the intimidating woman who had prefaced the Headmaster's address; Glynda Goodwitch, a woman well known for her power as both a huntress and the deputy to Headmaster Ozpin. The stern eyes of that woman could quell an entire army, and even with Aura and their weaponry close at hand it wasn't enough to make anyone in the vicinity think otherwise.
The second way to keep an entire room silent, however, was the one currently in place.
Everyone was asleep.
Except for her, that is. She couldn't bring herself to sleep just yet.
There was a nervousness to her that she simply couldn't put away, that being the simple thought of one Beacon practice she was well aware of.
They were to form teams of four; that was manageable, at least. She could interact with others well enough to keep from drawing unwanted attention, so that wasn't the issue.
Partners. That was the problem. She had come into this with only a single person she wanted as a partner.
Would they be given the chance to choose? She didn't think it likely. That would be too convenient. But even so, a completely randomized selection also seemed out of the question. Surely it wouldn't be a roulette, she would have to have some way to influence the outcome.
Right?
Biting her lower lip in thought, the girl's hands fell over one another, resting in her lap. Her right index finger began drumming a steady beat on her left hand, something to calm her.
She didn't like the idea that her next four years could be anything from tolerable to hell based solely upon who she partnered with. Quiet as she was, difficult as she found it to give voice to her feelings on matters, it was hard for others to really connect with her in the first place.
And she had known that going in. It was necessary to come to Beacon. It was necessary to deal with people.
But she had her secrets, and she didn't want to face the possibility of them being revealed to someone she didn't trust. And in this room filled with hunter hopefuls, there was only a single person she trusted.
Glancing to her side, an almost imperceptible smile tugged at her lips. She'd managed to toss and turn enough to dislodge her sleeping bag again, in her insistence to keep it unzipped... an amused sigh slipped from her lips as she took to righting the other girl's cover.
Even in her sleep, the girl couldn't keep herself still. Energetic to a fault, that one.
It took someone like that to be her friend, though. Someone who could look past the surface and tell there was more to people, someone with the kind of energy to act on it, and someone with the determination to continue even through a rocky start.
That was exactly who Nora Valkyrie was. The ginger-haired girl had simply refused to allow herself to be pushed away by the stoic and dull demeanor she often wore, dug deeper until she found the girl hiding beneath that, and then forcibly dragged her out to the front, point-blank refusing to allow her to retreat to her self made hideaway in her own personality.
And over time, being on the surface rather than hidden away had become tolerable. Even enjoyable. She smiled more, laughed more, spoke more... and it was all thanks to Nora and her insistence that she wasn't living how she should be.
Lie Ren had at first felt that Nora had no right to tell her just how she was to live her life; if she was happy like this, why did it matter?
But Nora had simply asked if she was really happy. And Ren was unable to answer immediately. Nora answered for her.
"If you were really happy before, you wouldn't let me stick around you all the time."
And she had been right. Ren was far from happy before... but then Nora had dragged her kicking and screaming to contentedness, through the circumstances they shared. Nora believed, knew, that Ren hadn't simply kept her around out of sentimentality or pity.
This led to now, where Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie absolutely had to become partners. Otherwise, she would be stuck without the ginger girl to keep her grounded, stuck with someone new and unfamiliar. Stuck with someone who she didn't want knowing her secret.
Eventually her eyes caught the number on the clock and she clicked her tongue quietly in aggravation, realizing that she really shouldn't continue to worry on these matters so late into the night. For the moment, there was nothing she could do but continue on towards the next day.
A little smile came to Ren's lips at that, wider than before but still tiny compared to some she had seen on the faces of others.
It had been Nora to really hammer that particular lesson through, amusingly enough.
With that in mind, she quickly crawled into her own sleeping bag, quiet as could be, before settling herself in comfortably.
'Having said that, though...' The girl thought to herself, the smile falling back into her neutral expression. 'I still cannot help but be worried.'
It was personal. She didn't want to have to explain it. Didn't want to hear the things that would be said about it, didn't want to deal with the things it would bring.
Lie Ren truly hoped no one at Beacon other than Nora learned that "he" was actually a woman.
Morning for Ren was hectic, per the usual. Nora had taken it upon herself to wake the other girl up, cheerfully singing about how it was morning.
She sighed, though it was more resigned than anything. Ren was far too used to Nora's antics to be concerned outside of paying half an ear of attention to her rambling in case she said anything important.
Yes, Nora, it was morning. Which meant that Lie Ren was not functioning at full capacity by any stretch of the imagination. She didn't like coffee, the taste being far too strong, but the caffeine was... very tempting.
But if she got coffee, Nora would get coffee too.
... Ren wasn't going to get coffee.
Another sigh as she went through her morning routine, Nora happily alongside her, ranting and rambling about how excited she was for the things to come.
Nervousness tinged Ren's thoughts, but she kept it to herself. She would be fine. All they needed to do was ensure that the two of them were partnered together. If that happened, that was one less person on the team that Ren would need to hide her gender from.
She just... wasn't comfortable with people knowing she was a girl. The ruse had been ongoing for years now, it wasn't something she would break from any time soon. By this point it had practically become second instinct to double, triple check each and every time she did anything that could reveal herself.
Some people would probably find it bizarre that she had done this for so long, taken it so seriously even into her teens when she'd started so young.
All the more reason not to let anyone know. Two young girls wandering alone in Mistral and trying to scrounge their survival was... not an ideal situation. A young girl and a young boy, however... well, it hadn't been much better, but every little thing helped. It'd become natural for Ren by this point to front as a male.
The group of hopefuls for Beacon was fairly diverse. She had spotted certain recognizable individuals already in Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee, both fairly important individuals. She had even seen the two of them conversing as she and Nora had passed through the locker rooms on their way to the cliffs.
"So Renny." Nora spoke up. Well, that is to say that she dropped her previous tangent of words and spoke this new series of words. She had never stopped speaking to Ren, but the girl had been... not so much tuning her out, as she heard each and every word of her friend's rambling... but she certainly hadn't put her full attention forward until now.
A pause in her step for the briefest moment, her pink eyes darting to face Nora momentarily. That was all it took for Nora Valkyrie to realize that Lie Ren had given her full attention to the other girl's words.
Such was the dynamic they shared. She continued on without a moment's hesitation. "I know this isn't even really a question, but we're trying to land on the same team right?"
Ren nodded. She hadn't expressly said as much to Nora beforehand, but the ginger haired girl was correct to assume she wouldn't want to be paired with anyone else if possible.
With that confirmed, Nora happily went back to her previous train of thought about why pancakes were the greatest food to ever exist.
Ren smiled at that, walking alongside her best friend as the two of them continued on towards the cliffside. Spotting the Headmaster and Deputy, she offered a slight nod of greeting and respect to the two before continuing on. Nora waved heartily, drawing a chuckle and a wave from the grey haired man.
And with that, the took their position on a pair of platforms directly next to one another, the platforms spaced out in such a way that it was obvious this was where they were meant to be.
Nora continued chattering away, and Ren paid mind to it only enough to hear the words and draw them back up if need be. She merely watched the newcomers file in.
She had taken stock of some of the more prominent hopefuls, the ones that were worth looking out for, the ones who stood out. Further, she had grouped them somewhat in her head.
Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee; the notables. They were two girls who had near celebrity status in many ways. Weiss Schnee was a popular singer before she left that behind for the sake of her training, and Pyrrha Nikos was known as the Invincible Girl of Mistral due to her unmatched record as the winner of the regional tournament four times running.
Further, Weiss Schnee was... well, a Schnee. As owners of the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest corporations on Remnant and often considered the best provider of Dust for commercial, personal, and military use. Particularly infamous for their morally unsound treatment of Faunus employees, the company had it's fair share of skeletons in the closet Ren was certain.
Following those two, whom she had names to place to faces, there were the other stand-outs.
The child, for instance. Child perhaps being the wrong word to use, since really they were all teenagers, this girl was quite clearly the youngest member of the group. If Ren had to guess, she would be fifteen or sixteen... or perhaps she was exceedingly small for her age and the girl was actually their age. Ren didn't have the information on that.
Still, the girl in red seemed somewhat capable. She carried herself with confidence, striding happily about the area. She did refrain from communicating with others, excepting the blonde who seemed to be a relative or close friend, so a socially awkward personality was a likely possibility.
She was notable due to her apparent age, and her sister, cousin, or close friend was notable due to the aura of absolute confidence surrounding her. It didn't seem to be any sort of arrogance, so much as a simply self-assurance; this was where she belonged, and there was no way that she would be told otherwise.
Ren could admit to being somewhat envious of the other girl for that. She would have appreciated some of that boundless confidence.
The silent girl, the one with the bow. She had a gait to her that was like a predatory animal. At a glance, Ren could tell that she was someone well versed in remaining unseen when needed. There was just something about people like them; a certain stride they kept, a certain look about them. People like her, people like Ren, they could tell one another apart out of a crowd. It was an unfortunate side effect of gaining that kind of proficiency to begin with, the difficulty of hiding it from others in the know.
And then there was the last one, the one that Ren had the most trouble figuring out.
The blonde boy, the awkward teen who looked like he had never been more out of his element. Even among those who were visibly nervous, he stood out as just... not fitting.
She didn't dwell on it.
Soon enough, the players had gathered. The headmaster gave his speech, instructing them to locate the artifacts and return; they would be launched into the Emerald Forest below, teeming with Grimm, and they would either sink or swim. Their landing strategy was theirs to figure out.
And most importantly; their partners would be determined by the first person they made eye-contact with while on the ground.
Ren very nearly breathed a sigh of relief. She was more than capable of remaining unseen while tracking down Nora within a forested area. So long as she could reach Nora quickly, this would be fine.
The girl shot her a small, secretive smile; Ren fought herself to keep from returning it, eventually losing the battle and letting a tiny tilt of her lips appear.
This was fine. They would be fine. She had been worried over nothing.
How silly of her.
Jaune Arc was in something of a bind.
The blonde teen had been in the middle of questioning the Headmaster as to just how they were expected to land, when the very platform beneath him had decided time was up and launched him like a test-dummy through a car windshield.
With less smashing initially, of course, but if he didn't come up with something quick there would be a lot more smashing in his future!
Hurtling through the air, screaming at the top of his lungs, the blonde teen saw something blurring towards him.
Reacting mostly on sheer instinct, he managed to activate the shield at his hip; Crocea Mors, his family heirloom. The blade's sheath expanded into a shield, and he was able to bring it to bear in time to take the brunt of the impact from the flying object, managing to bat it away with great difficulty.
The reddish blur of an item flew off into the treeline somewhere below, though Jaune Arc was only able to guess at that as he himself had just breached the treeline.
Miraculously, he didn't hit too many branches on his way down; perhaps his terrified screams had scared even the tree limbs away.
Regardless, he was now about to hit the ground with a very wet splat which would signify the end of his time at Beacon and his life.
Or so he'd thought.
Someone swooped in, catching him out of the air like he hadn't even been in any danger at all. They moved so quickly that one moment Jaune was facing the ground, fully expecting to die, and in the next he was looking up at the canopy above.
Breathing heavily from his close shave, he managed to catch sight of his savior; a dark haired boy with pink eyes and a neutral look on his face.
"Thanks a ton for the save." He mumbled, a wide, grateful smile on his face. "I had no clue how I was going to land from that!"
The boy blinked, eyes widening a bit as some sort of realization fell over him. The teen, who had been holding him bridal style, released Jaune and allowed him to stand, before taking a few steps back and seemingly taking a moment to think.
"... It appears that we are to be partners." He eventually said, voice perfectly neutral.
Jaune smiled. "I guess so. My name is Jaune Arc. It's short, it's sweet, and it rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it."
"Lie Ren. It's a pleasure." He inclined his head briefly in introduction, before his eyes snapped off to the side as a sudden hissing noise made itself apparent. "Careful."
Gulping, the blonde backed away and pulled his blade out. Holding the blade tightly, he began glancing around warily as well. "W-what's going on?" Jaune asked, a nervous timbre in his voice.
"Grimm." Ren replied simply, visibly straining his senses to pick out where the creature was.
A sudden movement drew Jaune's eye, the blonde teen shouting in surprise and more than a little fear as a monstrous black snake shot forward, attempting to take a bite out of Ren.
But thankfully for both of them, the green-clad teen was unharmed.
Leaping into the air gracefully, a pair of emerald green pistols seemingly appearing in his hands as he did so, the teen unleashed a barrage of bullets onto the creature below him as it flew past.
Jaune readied his blade, trying to disguise his fear behind a false sense of confidence. Just as he was about to charge forward, shield up and blade to the side in preparation for a stab, something distracted him.
The snake's body was black, but there was a part where it started to fade to grey before quickly turning white. And that part was moving strangely, like it wasn't actually... well, slithering. And further, it seemed like it was coiled around them, so the snake's tail would be behind the two of them.
That in addition to the fact that he heard hissing from another direction was the only thing that saved him, as the teen turned just in time to raise his shield.
A second head where the tail would have been. Jaune Arc was flabbergasted by this development, and the impact of the creature's fangs slamming into his shield sent him tumbling.
Knowing it would be suicide to stay on the ground, Jaune quickly got up, grumbling to himself about his arm. That thing had hit him like a truck, it was a good thing he had his shield or that could have gone way worse.
The soft sound made by Ren as he landed was almost unnoticed by Jaune, but the presence at his back wasn't. "If we work together, this should be simple." Ren spoke softly. "King Taijitu make the most of their twin heads by isolating a single target and pressuring them from both sides. With two of us here, that is not possible. Handle one head, I have the other."
And with that, Ren quickly darted away.
Jaune frowned to himself, gulping at the sight of the vicious monster before him.
This was a Grimm? This is what he was going to be fighting against?
Was... was he really ready for this kind of thing?
'No. No, I'm not.' He answered his own question after a moment, clenching his grip around the hilt of Crocea Mors even tighter. Another gulp, his tongue darted out to wet his lips. "I asked for this. I wanted this." Jaune muttered, readying his sword and shield just like he'd seen the knights from the fairy tales do. If he was going to be a huntsman, he had to fight Grimm. It was part of the job description.
With that said, Jaune Arc charged heroically towards the King Taijitu, his blue eyes locked onto the hateful crimson orbs of the beast as a battle-cry ripped from his throat.
And then he accidentally brushed against the mechanism of the shield which folded it back into a sheath, leaving his defensive stance woefully inadequate.
By this point, he was too close to stop charging. He didn't have time to back away as the monster lunged forward, seeing the opportunity for what it was.
Jaune's life flashed before his eyes as he frantically tried again to unfold the sheath into it's shield form, to absorb the blow. But he wasn't going to make it, he didn't have the time.
Just as he figured he was dead, Jaune finally managed to click the button.
And the shield expanded from it's sheath, the strong metal expanding out and locking in place to take any blow. This shield had weathered greater hits than anything the Taijitu could deliver, that much Jaune knew for fact.
But in this case it didn't absorb the blow at all, because a wave of force slammed into Jaune. And then it took him with it.
At this point, Jaune realized that he was not dead. And that through some miracle, he had survived.
When he opened his eyes again, he realized what had occurred.
His shield had opened just moments away from the beast closing it's jaws around his arm.
The King Taijitu wasn't able to pull away or stop itself, and now between it's open maw was the shield of Crocea Mors, proud and unbreakable as the creature frantically shifted, trying to shake the shield off somehow.
Jaune was still attached to the shield, however, and despite the frantic movements doing a number on his arm he realized this was going to be his one shot.
Another frantic shake brought Jaune to the beast's eye level, where he could practically feel the sheer malice and hate oozing off of it.
Jaune Arc readied his family blade and let loose with a furious roar and a powerful thrust directly into the red pool of evil this creature used to view the world.
And it sunk in without resistance, a horrific shriek echoing from the Grimm as the blade went deeper and deeper, before it eventually stilled.
Pulling the blade out, Jaune was about to refold the shield when an idea hit him; what if the Grimm wasn't dead yet? If he put his shield, the one thing keeping the creature from biting him, back into the sheathed form to remove it then he would be dead.
So he stabbed the creature through it's other eye just to make sure it wasn't playing dead.
It wasn't.
With that, he sighed in relief and prepared to remove himself from it's jaws, his arm aching like nothing else he'd felt before, but before he could get to the button he was freed in a different way.
Another wretched shriek rang out from the other side of the clearing and then the beast just dissolved like smoke in the wind.
Jaune fell back onto his rump, breathing heavily. He'd done it, he'd killed a Grimm on his own.
Well, not entirely on his own. It was just one Grimm with two heads, and someone else took down the other head.
So he'd half killed a Grimm on his own.
'It's a start...' He thought to himself with a grin, before the pain in his arm brought a grimace to it's place. "Ow... that smarts."
"Are you alright?" Ren asked, weapons stowed and looking down at him from a standing position.
Jaune groaned a bit in discomfort as he moved his arm about. "That snake shook me like a chew toy there. I'm not sure what it did exactly, but boy does it sting."
A frown came to the other teen's face. "That's... unusual." He muttered. "Your Aura should have protected you from that, for the most part."
"My what?"
Lie Ren blinked in surprise. "Your Aura." The disguised girl repeated, this time somewhat slower. Seeing the blank look on his face brought a horrifying realization to her own.
Did he seriously not have his Aura unlocked? How in the world did she have a prospective student of Beacon Academy before her sans Aura? It was unthinkable.
And yet here they were.
From his position on the ground, nursing his wounded arm for a moment longer, the teen stared up at her. "Er.. I totally know what we're talking about, but you could explain. You know, just to make sure I've got the finer points down." He looked more nervous than before.
Ren could guess why; chances were, he had arrived to Beacon through less than legal means. Forgeries of his transcripts perhaps. There was simply no way that anyone lacking their Aura could have come from a training school or passed one of the Beacon Entry Exams. For him to be here without Aura, there was simply no reasonable explanation outside of cheating. Even if a benefactor among the professional Huntsmen was behind this, they wouldn't be negligent enough to send their charge into this sans their Aura of all things.
She said nothing about it, though. Her mind was on one specific thing, really.
During her battle with the black head of the King Taijitu, she had chanced a look towards her partner to see how he was faring.
The charge towards the serpent was crude and not particularly fast, but he seemed confident in himself. And that had all fallen apart when his shield had retracted out of nowhere.
Ren had been surprised by it, and more than a little concerned for her new partner's well being despite her inclination towards finding someone who was very much not him as her partner.
But then he'd pulled off a feat of rather excellent timing in expanding the shield once more just in time to catch the Taijitu's jaws. With the shield jammed between it's jaws, the creature was divested of it's most dangerous threat. Ren had turned back to her own battle at that point, assuming that Jaune Arc would be competent enough to finish things off from there.
And now she was realizing that he could have very easily died there, and that reopening his shield had likely been simple luck.
That was terrifying. He could have died so easily and it made no sense how he had managed to kill the creature without Aura. His luck was absurd for that to have happened.
Restraining her emotions, the girl took a moment to think things through.
A soft sigh slipped from her after she realized there really was only one good option.
"Jaune, Aura is something that all prospective huntsmen would have." She emphasized that, to drive in the point that she was fully aware of the fact that he didn't belong. "It is the manifestation of your soul. It protects you, heals your wounds. Without it, we are nothing more than prey to the Grimm." And yet he had managed to slay his half of their Taijitu, oddly enough.
That was... admirable, to some degree. A fool he may have been, but a brave fool at the very least.
She knelt down next to him, drawing a confused look from him. "Er, what are you doing?" He asked, but Ren ignored his discomfort.
"You are a liability." Ren stated simply, placing a hand on his injured arm gently. He winced at that, either at the words or the touch, but said nothing to contest her. "And since I was the one to find you, I must take responsibility for your well being. However, I cannot trust myself to protect you while also completing my objectives." She hated when people made her actually talk this much. Between herself and Nora, so few words really needed to be spoken. But in dealing with other individuals, Ren was forced to actually explain things.
It was awful. She resolved to finish quickly.
"I will awaken your Aura. With it, you can at least protect yourself." It would also take care of the wound his arm sustained in short order. If she had to guess, it was a simple matter of being strained, the kind of thing that simple bed rest would heal over time.
Aura made that time much shorter and allowed for action in the meantime.
Jaune tensed beneath her touch. "Alright." He mumbled out, deciding to go along with it.
Good. That made Ren's job much easier. Once she finished this, she could finally stop talking for a bit.
A deep breath left her as she began the process of unlocking the other teen's Aura. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a master of balance and skill to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my palm, set you free."
Her breath hitched as the process completed, and she felt herself fall forward suddenly, a rush of exhaustion claiming her.
Startled, the blond shifted quickly to catch her, leaving her held in his arms. "Are you alright? Ren?" He asked, blue eyes wide.
As she pulled back a bit, assuring him she was fine under her breath, Ren was treated to a sight that she wasn't prepared for.
Due to how she had fallen, and how Jaune had reacted in catching her, he had pressed her close to him to keep her from falling. And upon pulling back, she got a good look at his face.
Maybe it was the exhaustion talking, but those blue eyes of his were rather pretty. His smile, small and relieved, as she told him that there was nothing wrong, was heartwarming. And all things considered, he was far from any kind of ugly.
Ren definitely figured the exhaustion was talking. Her blush was also a product of that, she quickly determined. Fighting through the tiredness, she pulled back further, moving to try and stand...
"Oh, hi there Renny! You made a friend!"
A familiar voice brought Ren's attention towards the rather compromising position she was in with her partner.
The exhaustion was quickly swept away by the humiliation as she stood, offering a hand to the downed blonde without looking his direction. Instead, she addressed Nora and her companion.
"Nora. This is my partner, Jaune Arc."
The bubbly bomber threw the swordsman a wave. "Hiya. I'm Nora Valkyrie, Ren's friend." And then she threw her arm over the shoulder of the redhead next to her, the girl seeming only slightly uncomfortable with the gesture. "And this is Pyrrha Nikos! She's on a cereal box!"
"Ah... yes, that was pretty cool." The redhead repeated bashfully.
Ren sighed, partially relieved that no one saw fit to comment on the situation she and Jaune had been in upon their arrival and partially frustrated that Nora was so close by all this time and she had failed to be partnered with her.
How frustrating.
After initiation had finished, the newly named Team JNPR had retreated to their dorm room. From there it had been a somewhat awkward period of getting used to one another, before the rest of the day was finished out with small talk and wondering about what the future held.
That had been a week and a half ago, and things had been... good, since then.
Ren could admit that she liked the members of the team.
Nora was her best friend, so it was obvious just why she was so pleased to have her around; Pyrrha Nikos was a capable fighter, enough that Ren honestly suspected she could defeat every other member of their team at once. And Jaune was the main reason that she suspected that, in that he was almost completely inexperienced... but he had a good head on his shoulders, and his actual strength left little to be desired.
He had blocked the Deathstalker's claws well enough in the ensuing fight, not giving much ground at all despite the force of the blows. His stance wasn't awful, either, it was just clear that he was unused to fighting.
She hadn't confronted him on it, not yet. For whatever reason, he had been desperate enough to chance losing his life during their initiation just so that he could become a huntsmen.
Ren sympathized with that. And she also understood what it was like to keep a secret from others, so she hadn't said a word about it to anyone.
Perhaps that may become something she regretted down the line. For now she could only live with her choices. Jaune Arc was willing to risk his life for a dream, and so long as no one else was put at risk she would allow the deceit to continue.
Perhaps Jaune would go on to become a competent Huntsman. He had potential, and four years of Beacon could very well make something of that...
Sighing, she shook her head; the water from her shower rolling off of her wet hair and streaming pleasantly down her skin. Ren had been taking a bit too long in her shower, she knew that much from the temperature of the water gradually cooling.
But it was just so nice that she couldn't help but indulge; considering she was masquerading as a man to two of her teammates, this was one of the few things she could really let her guard down doing.
Both males or no, Jaune wasn't going to just barge in on her during a shower, and Pyrrha was under the impression she was male so would also refrain.
And Nora had already pretty well gotten everyone thinking they were together together with her typical act, the fervent denials making everyone assume she was just trying to hide it.
Finally turning off the flow of water, she sighed again and stretched pleasantly. Stepping delicately out of the shower, she retrieved her towel and began drying her hair.
Once she had finished that, she couldn't help but give herself a once over in the mirror, frowning just a bit.
As helpful as it was to keeping her gender hidden, Ren oftentimes did feel somewhat... lacking when she looked at her chest.
Especially considering how Nora had no issue in that department. But Ren ignored it, this was her body and she had to live with that; it wasn't some huge deal to her.
She was content, really. Just looking herself over, Ren felt that her body was definitely what she could call attractive. She was just a bit small in the chest area, but her figure was otherwise rather good. At least, she thought so.
... even saying that, though, it did still weigh on her mind every time.
"Of course..." The dark haired girl mumbled to herself, the frown getting ever so slightly larger. "It doesn't exactly mean much." Considering her insistence on hiding her gender, it didn't exactly matter how pretty she was outside of her own viewing pleasure. No one else was going to get to see under her clothes... except Nora, and that wasn't in any romantic sense.
She sighed, before moving to grab said clothes... but after a moment, the realization hit her that they weren't in the bathroom with her.
Her pink eyes widened. She'd left her clothes on her bed, hadn't she? Damn it, and Nora hadn't said anything as they left; she must not have noticed.
Well, it wasn't like it was her job to remind Ren of these things. As a matter of fact, she herself was usually the one to do the reminding. Today was something of a fluke, it seemed.
Sighing, the girl thanked her lucky stars that the remainder of the team had gone out today; RWBY, the team directly across from them, had pulled everyone out to go hang out in the city as their weekend began, while she had decided to meet them there after a shower. Having come directly from a bit of training, just to keep her skills sharp, everyone accepted it easily.
So imagine her surprise as she left the bathroom, nothing covering her form but the pink towel she was holding just below her breasts, only to spy the form of their leader.
Jaune Arc, the fool of a blonde who she had been partnered with, was standing in the room with his scroll in hand, having just retrieved it from the nearby table.
Turning to regard her shortly after, Jaune was in the middle of a sheepish chuckle when he caught sight of her.
Ren was absolutely stunned. To the point where covering up was delayed for a good three seconds until her brain caught up and she realized just what had happened. A scarlet blush crossed her cheeks, and she just couldn't think of anything to say as the blue eyed teen kept up his deer in the headlights expression.
"... You're a girl!?" Jaune asked, his voice raising in sheer surprise. His face was a mask of pure shock, painted red from the sight of her previously uncovered body.
Frantically, she shushed him. "Please calm down. D-don't say anything about this!" Ren couldn't help but wonder why this had to happen to her. Was there some cosmic being out there that she had angered?
Her leader silenced himself, clearly wanting to question things, and Ren couldn't help but sigh. "Let me put my clothes on and I'll explain..." She mumbled, gesturing for him to turn around.
He blinked, looking towards the bathroom, before he realized that her towel hadn't been wrapped around her and her turning around to retrieve her clothing would give him a perfect view. With that in mind, he quickly changed his position and looked away from her, face still scarlet.
'Of all the luck.' Ren thought to herself as she collected her clothes, before darting into the bathroom to dress herself.
It looked like she would be sharing that secret after all.
Damn it. Why did she have to forget her clothes in the room? And of course the one time it mattered, no one caught it until it was too late.
Could things have gone any worse?
Outside of Team JNPR's dorm room, a ginger haired girl was grinning widely, leaning back against the wall and listening in to the goings on.
Could that have gone any better? She didn't think so!
Nora Valkyrie was a girl who very much loved Lie Ren; she was like the sister Nora hadn't ever had. Just a sister that she referred to as a brother instead, because she didn't like people knowing about her girly bits.
The energetic redhead didn't quite understand why, their time wandering about Mistral as a pair of vagabonds had passed by after all, but she could tell it wasn't because her bestie was unsatisfied with her gender. No, Ren could be a very girly girl when she wanted to, and they'd had the typical girl talk conversations, with Ren participating avidly.
... Well, as avidly as her monotonous friend would. The girl didn't like to talk much. But that was fine, because Nora could talk for the both of them.
At any rate, back to loving Ren. Because she loved Ren, she knew that her bestest friend was far from uninterested in boys. Further, the way that she and Pyrrha had stumbled upon Jaune and Ren during initiation had been rather telling.
The occasional glances her sneaky friend leveled their leader with may have gone unnoticed by the others on their team, but not Nora. She was Nora Valkyrie, the Ren whisperer! She knew these things.
So when her good friend started harboring an adorable crush for their leader, it made Nora sad. Because Ren wasn't going to get anywhere if she was a he, and Jaune was a nice guy; eventually, someone was going to snatch their dorky blonde knight up for themselves. The term "adorkable" applied to both him and the little leader of the team next door in RWBY.
Someone was going to be into that eventually. It'd take some time, but Jaune Arc wasn't going to stay single forever... even if he had the worst pickup lines in history.
Obviously, this meant that a little bit of her own brand of sneaky was called for.
Ren had goofed up today, managing to leave her clothes out on her bed in her haste to take a shower. And since they were all going out, it meant she would probably just leave it even if she realized it mid-shower.
'It really was too easy to sneakity sneak Jaune-Jaune's scroll off him.' She giggled, amused at just how well this had worked. Nora had just slipped the scroll off, made sure she was the last one to leave the room so she could set it down, and then waited.
And her efforts paid off without her needing to incriminate herself, because eventually their fearless leader figured out he was missing his scroll. He'd been off to go get it, and a few minutes after Nora had just played her usual card; the "I'm Nora, and I do whatever I please!" card. Which gave her an excuse to follow.
You do that enough times and eventually people stop questioning it. Everyone thought she was just plain kooky and did things at the drop of a hat. That made things so much easier, because she almost always had a good reason to go off to do her own thing... even when she didn't!
Now, she did feel a little bad about setting Renny up like this. But sacrifices had to be made for the sake of love, and Ren's modesty was sadly one of them. On the up side, it was just her and the boy she liked all alone in their dorm room when it happened; that would be a memory Jaune was going to keep with him for a long time! All the better for Ren's chances of snatching him up herself.
Even if the rest of the campus thought it was forbidden love.
After eavesdropping enough to get the gist of the conversation, Nora figured it was about time to finish things up; she knocked on the door loudly. "Reeeeeen, Jaaaaaaaaune! Hurry it up, Pyrrha is still waiting at the landing pads!" She called out, before throwing the door open. "How long does it take to find a scroll, oh fearless leader of ours?"
They gave her embarrassed looks, both for their own reasons, before standing from their seated position on their respective beds and apologizing about taking so long.
Nora grinned and waved it off, but internally she couldn't help but think one thing as she spotted the glances the two were giving one another when they thought she couldn't see.
'Mission complete!'
Authors Note: And that's why this is called Renderbent, boys and girls. Because I genderbent Ren. Get it? Get it?
... I'll show myself out, then.
Anyway, expect no updates for this story. If anything is posted to this, it may honest to goodness be me just turning this into an idea dump fic of my own so I can not waste a shit ton of space on my profile with clutter. Renderbent is just a plot bunny I need gone.